Rippee Writes: fall camp thoughts, golf updates and realignment news
What to make of Ole Miss's defensive back depth, Magnolia State golf update and some Big 12 news
Hope everyone is having a good Thursday. We have a pair of new podcasts out, one with HawgTalk’s Kyle Sutherland talking Arkansas as part of our opponent preview series, and the other is a fall camp preview with former Ole Miss recruiting staffer Weldon Rotenberg as the Rebels start camp this Saturday.
We’ve got football and some golf to get to today.
How do Rebels utilize newfound depth in secondary?
As I mentioned in Monday’s newsletter, I am going to offer a couple of football thoughts each day leading up to and throughout fall camp. Today, the secondary came to mind. The Rebels had the worst pass defense in the SEC in 2020. A young group struggled, particularly early on (Kyle Pitts is still running wide open in The Vaught), and was not aided by the fact that the Rebels couldn’t consistently pressure opposing quarterbacks.
This year, however, the script has flipped entirely. Ole Miss has depth in the secondary for the first time in what seems like a half decade or so. The Rebels return Keidron Smith (started all 10 games in 2020), Jakorey Hawkins (six starts), Deane Leonard (two starts), as well as a healthy Jaylon Jones who missed six games last year with an injury. Add in safety Otis Reese, who wasn’t ruled eligible until the final game of the season, Deantre Prince’s return to the program after a year in junior college, and Navy transfer Jake Springer becoming eligible, and the Rebels suddenly have a pretty formidable group on the back end.
If you’ll recall, Ole Miss signed a defensive back-heavy 2021 recruiting class and it wasn’t by accident. When D.J. Durkin and Chris Partridge took inventory of what they were inheriting from a personnel standpoint last year, they likely looked at the secondary and thought ‘oh god.’ The Rebels signed seven defensive backs in this latest class. They still aren’t where the coaching staff wants to be from a depth standpoint, but they are a hell of a lot better off than at any point over the last four seasons. Four things came to mind when trying to gauge how good the secondary could be.
Which newcomer will make an impact? M.J. Daniels and Tysheem Johnson seem like the two most likely candidates. There are snaps to be had at safety with Jon Haynes transferring. The pair of freshmen will likely be battling against A.J. Finley and Jake Springer for playing time and it will be interesting to see if either emerges as a candidate for immediate playing time.
What do the Rebels have in Miles Battle? He made the switch from receiver to defensive back halfway through last season and saw a handful of snaps as a reserve. Battle is a lengthy athlete at 6-foot-3, 195 lbs. and I am curious to see what he can become as a defender.
How does slot corner shake out? Tylan Knight and Jalen Jordan got a lot of snaps both here and at safety last year, but the coaching staff will likely feel better heading into the season opener if another corner or two become reliable options here. With the current state of college football and pass-heavy offenses, having a number of versatile options here is a game-changer.
This is really a question as much as it is a statement, but getting Prince back is huge. He had a pair of interceptions as a freshman, played in all 12 games and flashed signs of becoming a really good SEC corner.
Current Deal: For being a loyal subscriber, show him proof of subscription and you’ll get a 16 oz. prime strip for $15 and a pack of sausage for $5. That’s a hell of a dinner on the grill for 20 bucks. Go check him out, it’s the best place in Mississippi to get meat and Oxford is lucky to have it.
Magnolia State golf update
The Olympics put the professional golf world on pause last week, but we are back this week with the Korn Ferry Tour season winding down and a Mississippian teeing it up on the PGA Tour. All tee times are CT.
The PGA Tour has two events this week with the World Golf Championship in Memphis and then the Barracuda Championship in Utah. We have a Mississippian making a start on Tour.
Hattiesburg native and Alabama alum Davis Riley is in the field at the Barracuda. Riley should already be a member of the PGA Tour. He won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020 before the COVID shutdown and was a victim of the pandemic-induced wraparound season. Riley officially locked up his PGA Tour card two months ago by reaching the fail-safe points threshold in the standings, which means he gained enough points to ensure he won’t drop out of the top 25 spots that are awarded Tour cards at the end of the season. Riley’s had a remarkably quick ascent in professional golf and is a star in the making. He tees off at 3:19 Thursday and goes off at 10:29 tomorrow morning.
The Korn Ferry Tour is also in Utah this week for the Utah Championship. Four of the usual five Mississippians are in the field.
Tupelo native and Mizzou alum Hayden Buckley teed off at 8:50 this morning and goes off at 2:05 tomorrow. Buckley is 37th in the standings thanks to a February win in Florida, and with only two events remaining in the regular season, he needs another win, or pretty close to it to jump into the top 25 and lock up a PGA Tour card. This is where it all began for Buckley this time last year. He had conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour and Monday qualified into this event. Buckley need at top-25 finish to improve his status and play the remainder of the 2020 portion of the season, and birdied the last four holes on Sunday to accomplish that feat. He made a bomb on the 18th green that induced a fist pump from his caddie that would have made you think he won the Masters. It was truly a life-changing week (really, a life changing four holes) for Buckley. I wrote about that week and how it changed the course of his career a few months ago. Keep in mind, the top 75 players in the standings get into the Korn Ferry Tour Finals — a three-week stretch of events immediately following the end of the regular season that awards 25 additional PGA Tour cards. Buckley is locked into making the Finals, but would obviously prefer to win and secure his card in the regular season.
Fulton native and Mississippi State alum Chad Ramey teed off at 8:00 this morning and goes off at 1:15 tomorrow afternoon. Ramey is in the middle of a remarkable stretch of golf. He’s made 21 consecutive cuts. He locked up his PGA Tour card at the end of June thanks to making 35 of 38 cuts in this wraparound season with nine top-10 finishes, and then notched his first professional win six days later at the Live and Work in Maine Open. The soon-to-be PGA Tour rookie is as consistent as anyone in the sport and will likely notch a top-15 finish this week, as he does seemingly every single week. Ramey is a great story and will make waves on tour next year.
Brandon native and Ole Miss alum Jonathan Randolph teed off at 1:55 on Thursday and goes off at 8:40 tomorrow morning. Randolph has played good golf over the last month, but hasn’t had much to show for it. He was in the final group on Saturday of the Colorado event three weeks ago, but shot 74 and fell out of contention. Randolph was only two shots off the lead after two rounds at the last event in Springfield two weeks ago, but again struggled on the weekend. This has been his story this season. He’s played well in spurts, but has struggled to put four rounds together. That’s a killer on the Korn Ferry Tour. The way most of the tournaments are set up, you pretty much have to shoot 4-6 under par each round simply to keep pace with the field. He sits at 95th in the standings and needs two strong finishes to jump inside the top 75 and get into the Korn Ferry Tour finals.
Olive Branch native and Ole Miss alum Braden Thornberry teed off at 2:35 today and goes off at 8:20 tomorrow morning. Thornberry sits at 57th in the standings, comfortably in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, but has made just two cuts since the end of June. He could jump inside the top 25 with a win in either of these final two regular season events, but will likely need to get hot in the finals to earn a PGA Tour card.
NEW PROMO: With NASCAR revving back up, anyone who signs up for a NASCAR picks package gets 30 percent off using the promo code ‘NASCAR’. That’s in addition to susbscribers getting 20 percent off by using the promo code “Rippee”.
If you’re into wagering, you need to check these guys out, particularly ahead of football season. SkyBox has more promos on the way. They have a picks package for your preferred sport that will fit your price range.
Big 12 continues to crumble
Big 12 fans are taking the news of Texas and Oklahoma’s departure quite well. Earlier this week, the Texas legislature has a committee to discuss the ‘future of college sports in Texas,’ in which we found out many state lawmakers (presumably non-Texas alums), were not a fan of this decision.
So, that seemed to go well. Now we have a Kansas senator essentially becoming a narc, wanting the DOJ to investigate ESPN for colluding with Texas and Oklahoma. Seriously.
Seems like a great idea. What else could the DOJ have going on that is more important?
Anyway, on more serious note, keep an eye out for what happens in the coming weeks. As I keep telling you, despite what is being said publicly about Texas and Oklahoma remaining in the Big 12 through the 2025 season when the Grant of Rights expires, they have no intention to do so. They just have to say that so they can’t get sued for breach of contract. In fact, they intend to be playing in SEC stadiums by next fall.
So what is next for the Big 12? Will the league even exist by 2025? It seems doubtful. It was reported yesterday that Kansas and Iowa State reached out to the Big 10 regarding joining the league and that the Big 10 welcomes this idea and would approve them as members. You think the Big 10 wants to wait four years on that to happen? Nope.
The next domino that falls (meaning the next Big 12 school to officially join another conference) will likely be the end of the conference as we know it. I just don’t see how the league survives beyond 2021 with six or seven teams. Any school they add will not be within the same stratosphere in terms of TV value and revenue. It seems more likely by the day that the Big 12 will cease to exist within 24 months. Maybe they add schools and survive, but I highly doubt it. The league wants to make a long-term while its member institutions cannot afford to sit idle and wait and see what happens. From the schools’ perspective, realignment is a game of musical chairs, and being the one without a seat at the table would be a financial catastrophe. Money is what started this and it is what will continue to drive change. The Big 12 is simply caught in the crosshairs.
On the horizon:
Mailbag Friday podcast, get your questions in now
Football, football and more football content.
That’s all from me today. Thanks for being a loyal subscriber. Send to your friends and tell them to join the fun. Enjoy the perks of subscribing and have a wonderful Thursday. Back with more tomorrow.